Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention Competition

The museum will be located south of the downtown area near the corner of Depot Avenue and South Main Street within the 35-acre Depot Park redevelopment. The existing context consists of light industrial areas to the west and south of the site and neighborhoods to the north and east of the site. Depot Park is a multi-faceted redevelopment program consisting of several distinct and coordinated physical projects to generate economic, social and environmental benefits for the City of Gainesville. The site is a designated brownfield area that is undergoing reclamation to remove environmental barriers hindering redevelopment. The park’s vision will lead to a signature ‘central park’ that enhances the downtown area and the adjacent urban neighborhoods. Active and passive spaces that are family-friendly, inspirational, educational and creative will guide the development of the park providing a complementary setting for the Cade Museum.

The scope consists of a 40,000 SF building that will be completed in two phases. The first phase of 21,000 SF will consist of a main hall/lobby, gift shop, studios, classrooms, catering kitchen, several exhibit spaces and ancillary/support spaces. The second phase will consist of additional exhibit and workshop spaces, a full catering kitchen and office spaces.

The museum has a linear spatial organization oriented along the north-south axis of South Main Street. The building consists of the integration of three main shapes (circle, ellipse and rectangle) to address the programmatic and functional requirements of the project along with its response to the site. The double height circular lobby and elliptical circulation ‘extroverted’ spaces provide a clear and panoramic view of the park to the west. The western exposed portion of the facade will have vertical sunshading elements. The exhibit spaces are ‘introverted’ and will have skylights to introduce natural daylighting.